apostrophen's review
5.0
Edit: Flash Sale, August 24th, 2019, on the Bold Strokes Books web-store.
"Revealed," by David Pratt
I will quickly mention that David Pratt is the author of [b:Bob the Book|9505584|Bob the Book|David Pratt|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1347397518l/9505584._SX50_.jpg|14391245], which won a 2011 Lambda Literary Award and is an absolute joy to read. But my 365 project is short fiction, so here I'm going to discuss his phenomenal short piece "Revealed."
Here's the thing about truly well-written erotica that I think can sometimes be forgotten - there is story, there is character, there is change. Yes, there's also all the sweaty stuff - and "Revealed" has all the sweaty stuff you want it to have - amid a story about some men who are learning what sort of men they want, are, and might otherwise want to be. The restaurant where they work is there to collide them into this moment, and while sometimes a setting can be neglected, that isn't the case here. This is, after all, a collection of erotica centred around those themes of food and restaurants. This story is deft and gentle, then rough and a bit raunchy, and always moving. Frankly, I loved it. It's a perfect example of the sometimes perception of erotica as a lesser form of prose can be dead wrong.
"Supertaster," by Karl Taggart
Who says erotica can't be educational? Dirty Diner: Gay Erotica on the Menu's second story is Karl Taggart's "Supertaster." Here we have a situation not entirely unlike that of my husband and I, except I'm a complete spice wuss, rather than someone who genetically was somehow encoded to have a much more developed and sensitive sense of taste.
The dance the two men enter in this story made me smile. Having listened to that long-ago podcast, I did know what a supertaster was, so for me it was amusing to see the main character unsure as to why this guy - this guy he really, really liked - was capable of being so plain about food. Especially to a gourmand such as himself, who loves food, and spice, and cooking very complex meals. It's a very clever meet-cute, and the final conversations as the admissions are made are grand.
In the author bio, Karl Taggart also mentions he is a supertaster. Mental note for if I ever have him over for dinner - I should do the cooking, not my husband.
"Cookie," by Dale Chase
Forgive me that transition. To be fair, headache, backache, etc. But also of the theme is the idea of hard work well done, and that sits centrally in this story from Dirty Diner. "Cookie" is another wonderful period piece from Dale Chase, of a cattle drive and a young man finding a place - and work - for himself in the world.
The verisimilitude of Dale Chase's writing is - as always - spot on in that the world of the cattle drive comes to life on the page. Scent, texture, the potential for both danger and drudgery (and the danger in becoming complacent with the drudgery), all is spun with Chase's usual aplomb. That the sweat and sex scorches will not surprise you, either.
I've said it before - I think Dale Chase is the first author to make me love the western.
"The Key Ingredient," by Jeffrey Ricker
This next tale in the anthology about diners, restaurants, recipes and hot sweaty fellas is one of a loss. Jacob has lost Eric, and now the thing that once brought him joy - cooking - reminds him of the man for whom cooking brought such joy. Working at a restaurant, however, he doesn't get to shy away from this. It's obvious to his friends, however, that he's suffering. But when something goes awry with his bread pudding - and everyone who ate some is starting to feel very good, Jacob might find a new opportunity for happiness after all.
I loved this story, which begins so (ahem) bittersweet and then moves somewhere lighter and more fun than I'd expected the tale to go. Also, now I want some pudding.
"Bottom of the Menu," by Steve Berman
The thing I love the most about The Dirty Diner: Gay Erotica on the Menu is how many difference places the authors went with the various tales. The next story in the collection, "Bottom of the Menu," has one of the most unique menus brought to this particular table.
As the voice of the story uncovers the dishes - via the man who bears the menu on his skin - the heat of the story simmers toward a boil. There is so much more going on than what's on the surface of the "menu"'s skin, however, and the delicate twining of the mystery - which ends on a not-entirely uncouded note - was the perfect last bite.
"Sweetbread Hill," by J.D. Barton
You've heard me say this many times already, but here it is again: I don't generally react well to horror. Horror and I have an uneasy alliance at best, so when I got to the next story in this collection, I am willing to admit I actually paused, waited for a bright morning, and then continued from where I'd left off.
"Sweetbread Hill" has a kind of Bluebeard's Wife feeling to it - a young man named Chris meets three other young men and the owner of a house - the aforementioned Sweetbread Hill - and finds himself drawn into the place. Sensual and seemingly able to read his mind, the lord of the manor brings Chris to believe in a future that might be more than he had ever imagined for himself. Dark and sensuous, but filled with an edge of horror just on the edge of awareness right up until the final reveal, this story tantalizes and terrifies in turn.
"Someone to Lay Down Beside Me," by Todd Gregory
Said grill is the setting of the next story in The Dirty Diner. Having been to the diner every May for the last half-dozen years or so, I could picture it so clearly in my head as I read the opening to the story. Two guys, Gary and Dennis, are eating in the early morning hours after an evening that hasn't met expectations. Gary's relationship with Dennis is murky - Dennis doesn't seem to approve of much that Gary does, but doesn't want to hold claim over Gary either. The end result is obviously frustrating to Gary, and when Dennis teases him about approaching a hot fellow who just walked past them in the diner, Gary is rankled just enough to go for it.
As always, Todd Gregory's stories hand over a sweaty hot romp, while still dropping a story in your lap. Gary becomes a bit more lost as the story progresses - you get the sense this is a man who doesn't really know where he fits into even his own life - and the collision of him with this new stranger (and the tangent friction of his "friend" Dennis's influence) sets him in a new direction.
"Herman's Kosher Deli," by Daniel M. Jaffe
I love short fiction that follows in a series, and revisits characters from earlier tales. The fellow in this story, found in Dirty Diner, was also in Riding the Rails, both edited by Jerry L. Wheeler - who was a finalist this year for his erotica collection Strawberries and Other Erotic Fruits.
Jaffe's character, to get back to this story, is a sex angel. He figured this out in the last story - he's always incredibly attractive to men - all men - and has been working to figure out how to control this "problem." Working at a deli while he learns to fend off the attractions of others isn't as easy as it sounds, and the same joy and amusement - and sexy fun - that popped up throughout Jaffe's story in Riding the Rails is here again.
I grinned my way through the poor man's ongoing attempts to keep the men at bay - and learn his own self-control and how to not just give in to everyone who cops a feel. I hope this fellow returns, and that Jaffe never runs out of hijinks.
"Rick's Greasy (S)poon," by Hank Edwards
The next tale in The Dirty Diner is one about fathers, and sons, and legacies. I will admit here that even my stone cold familial agnostic eyes got a bit misty during this story, which is about Dave, a young man who returns to run his father's diner after his father passes away. He's got the desire, but maybe not the talent, and there's so much work to be done that it's not looking likely - not to mention he doesn't have any of his father's recipes.
But help arrives in the form of a supplier of local produce who definitely feeds more than one of Dave's appetites. The follow through of this story is tender in places even as it smoulders with Hank Edwards' usual sexy style, and I found myself smiling at the resolution of the problems Dave faced. Especially the ones with the produce supplier.
Oh, and fine. The stuff with his dad, too. That was nice. Just a second. Got some dust in my eye.
"Wish You Were Here," by Lewis DeSimone
Speaking of meals where you're not sure what is going to happen, I'm circling back to The Dirty Diner again today, where author Lewis DeSimone takes us to Italy. This story has a wonderful build to it - we know the voice of the tale is in Italy despite no longer being with the man he loved who'd wanted this trip in the first place. He is here, tasting and watching life go around him, sampling culture as a kind of escape, but not really succeeding in moving past what was.
A chance encounter, however, built on the wine and food of Italy, gives him a moment of potentiality - a chance born in passion that might just shed the past.
I love that this tale doesn't spell everything out for you, but gives you these moments in the life of a man who is still hearing the echo of what was, rather than the sound of what might be. Wonderfully done.
"Christmas Comes to Otter's Gap," by Jeff Mann
If you've ever read Jeff Mann (or heard me praising Jeff Mann) then you know by now that the man is a master of the poetic turn of phrase and has the most incredible ability to balance dichotomies you wouldn't normally expect to go well together. This story has that, of course, but it also has another ideal that I associate with Jeff Mann's writing - the love of Southern food.
No matter what Mann I read, I always end up hungry. The descriptive powers that he conjures when describing food - never mind it's food I've never seen or had, given my northern habitat - is mouth-watering. So when I saw this tale pop up in The Dirty Diner I knew I was in for something enticing as well as - likely - something bearish, a little (or a lot) edgy, and likely the taste of sweat alongside whatever southern delicacy was about to be cruelly trotted across the page in front of me with no hope of an actual sample.
The story is set in Virginia, and features a man caught in a snowstorm that brings him to Otter's Gap, to meeting a fellow in his restaurant, to sampling Appalachian food - and then more of what the chef has to offer. It's a lovely little story, and filled with enough of Mann's heat to melt even my own cold holiday heart.
"The Café Françoise," by Jay Neal
Jay Neal and I have been companions in anthologies a few times now, and I always enjoy his stories - they're often very different from each other, and I mean that as the compliment it is. This one, set in the harsh reality of a café in France in World War II, is a wonderful piece that - apart from being erotica - has an incredible sense of place and time to it. The reality of the bittersweet is thick here, and I will not lie and say I didn't close this story with a sniffle.
The narrator is here telling of a love he witnessed (and enjoyed) between two men who could never have what they truly wanted - one a German soldier, and one a Frenchman - but who take what they can while they can have it. That there is a dark decision to face at the end of the relationship is no surprise in and of itself, but it's deftly done, and the resolution of the story was surprising. Heartbreaking.
"Mistakes Were Made," by Tristan Cole
Back to the hot dishes from The Dirty Diner today. Tristan Cole is the king of the tales about insatiable submissive fellows, and "Mistakes Were Made" is no exception.
Here we have a man whose family keeps swooping in and taking his restaurants from under him whenever he manages to make a new success. This man has a boyfriend (and waiter) who is - put simply - one of said insatiable bottom types, and when he starts to realize this (via a web history search and a few other clues), it gels with something his boyfriend says - that he should start a restaurant your family would be too embarrassed or scandalized to own - and a new dessert is soon available on the menu.
Sexy, erotically charged, and over-the-top, this story is superlative Tristan Cole.
"Acquired Taste," by William Holden
Speaking of nightmares! Okay, if you've been following these Short Stories 365 entries this year, you'll already know that when you see William Holden's name pop up in an anthology, you might want to pause, check that you're not about to go to bed, and ensure that there are many lights brightly lit. His stories generally serve up a slice of something dark alongside the erotic, and as a confirmed horror wuss, I've learned my lesson.
So, even expecting it, "Acquired Taste" manages to deliver a shivery slap to the face.
Dean is out with his partner at a restaurant and the food is just increadible. It's so incredible, in fact, he's having a hard time controlling his reactions to it. His partner, annoyed at how little he is paying attention, steps outside for a smoke, and Dean starts to notice other men in the restaurant are having the same - uh - reaction to the dishes. And just through the doors to the kitchen, there's a tattooed man that really captures Dean's attention. It can't hurt to have a taste, can it?
I've said it before, but The Dirty Diner has such a larger range than you'd imagine when you first pick it up. And this dark dish is delivered by Holden with aplomb.
"The Munchies," by Rob Rosen
This is the last tale in The Dirty Diner and it's a lovely wee dessert served up by Rosen. Here we have a fella who perhaps didn't inhale just a little, and his impromptu trip to a donut store to conquer the inevitable munchies.
Once at the donut shoppe, however, there is a cash flow problem, and those delicious rings of doughy goodness seem out of reach. Until the hunky man behind the counter offers another option for method of payment, and soon our semi-fried hero is bobbing for donuts.
The amusement factor is high in this story - you can imagine how the donuts are stacked, I'm sure - but the story is no less hot for being so fun. Once again, I also had a quiet little grin over something I now look for in every Rob Rosen story (it's like playing 'Where's Waldo?' and I once asked him about it and it's actually really sweet).
Just like those donuts.
"Revealed," by David Pratt
I will quickly mention that David Pratt is the author of [b:Bob the Book|9505584|Bob the Book|David Pratt|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1347397518l/9505584._SX50_.jpg|14391245], which won a 2011 Lambda Literary Award and is an absolute joy to read. But my 365 project is short fiction, so here I'm going to discuss his phenomenal short piece "Revealed."
Here's the thing about truly well-written erotica that I think can sometimes be forgotten - there is story, there is character, there is change. Yes, there's also all the sweaty stuff - and "Revealed" has all the sweaty stuff you want it to have - amid a story about some men who are learning what sort of men they want, are, and might otherwise want to be. The restaurant where they work is there to collide them into this moment, and while sometimes a setting can be neglected, that isn't the case here. This is, after all, a collection of erotica centred around those themes of food and restaurants. This story is deft and gentle, then rough and a bit raunchy, and always moving. Frankly, I loved it. It's a perfect example of the sometimes perception of erotica as a lesser form of prose can be dead wrong.
"Supertaster," by Karl Taggart
Who says erotica can't be educational? Dirty Diner: Gay Erotica on the Menu's second story is Karl Taggart's "Supertaster." Here we have a situation not entirely unlike that of my husband and I, except I'm a complete spice wuss, rather than someone who genetically was somehow encoded to have a much more developed and sensitive sense of taste.
The dance the two men enter in this story made me smile. Having listened to that long-ago podcast, I did know what a supertaster was, so for me it was amusing to see the main character unsure as to why this guy - this guy he really, really liked - was capable of being so plain about food. Especially to a gourmand such as himself, who loves food, and spice, and cooking very complex meals. It's a very clever meet-cute, and the final conversations as the admissions are made are grand.
In the author bio, Karl Taggart also mentions he is a supertaster. Mental note for if I ever have him over for dinner - I should do the cooking, not my husband.
"Cookie," by Dale Chase
Forgive me that transition. To be fair, headache, backache, etc. But also of the theme is the idea of hard work well done, and that sits centrally in this story from Dirty Diner. "Cookie" is another wonderful period piece from Dale Chase, of a cattle drive and a young man finding a place - and work - for himself in the world.
The verisimilitude of Dale Chase's writing is - as always - spot on in that the world of the cattle drive comes to life on the page. Scent, texture, the potential for both danger and drudgery (and the danger in becoming complacent with the drudgery), all is spun with Chase's usual aplomb. That the sweat and sex scorches will not surprise you, either.
I've said it before - I think Dale Chase is the first author to make me love the western.
"The Key Ingredient," by Jeffrey Ricker
This next tale in the anthology about diners, restaurants, recipes and hot sweaty fellas is one of a loss. Jacob has lost Eric, and now the thing that once brought him joy - cooking - reminds him of the man for whom cooking brought such joy. Working at a restaurant, however, he doesn't get to shy away from this. It's obvious to his friends, however, that he's suffering. But when something goes awry with his bread pudding - and everyone who ate some is starting to feel very good, Jacob might find a new opportunity for happiness after all.
I loved this story, which begins so (ahem) bittersweet and then moves somewhere lighter and more fun than I'd expected the tale to go. Also, now I want some pudding.
"Bottom of the Menu," by Steve Berman
The thing I love the most about The Dirty Diner: Gay Erotica on the Menu is how many difference places the authors went with the various tales. The next story in the collection, "Bottom of the Menu," has one of the most unique menus brought to this particular table.
As the voice of the story uncovers the dishes - via the man who bears the menu on his skin - the heat of the story simmers toward a boil. There is so much more going on than what's on the surface of the "menu"'s skin, however, and the delicate twining of the mystery - which ends on a not-entirely uncouded note - was the perfect last bite.
"Sweetbread Hill," by J.D. Barton
You've heard me say this many times already, but here it is again: I don't generally react well to horror. Horror and I have an uneasy alliance at best, so when I got to the next story in this collection, I am willing to admit I actually paused, waited for a bright morning, and then continued from where I'd left off.
"Sweetbread Hill" has a kind of Bluebeard's Wife feeling to it - a young man named Chris meets three other young men and the owner of a house - the aforementioned Sweetbread Hill - and finds himself drawn into the place. Sensual and seemingly able to read his mind, the lord of the manor brings Chris to believe in a future that might be more than he had ever imagined for himself. Dark and sensuous, but filled with an edge of horror just on the edge of awareness right up until the final reveal, this story tantalizes and terrifies in turn.
"Someone to Lay Down Beside Me," by Todd Gregory
Said grill is the setting of the next story in The Dirty Diner. Having been to the diner every May for the last half-dozen years or so, I could picture it so clearly in my head as I read the opening to the story. Two guys, Gary and Dennis, are eating in the early morning hours after an evening that hasn't met expectations. Gary's relationship with Dennis is murky - Dennis doesn't seem to approve of much that Gary does, but doesn't want to hold claim over Gary either. The end result is obviously frustrating to Gary, and when Dennis teases him about approaching a hot fellow who just walked past them in the diner, Gary is rankled just enough to go for it.
As always, Todd Gregory's stories hand over a sweaty hot romp, while still dropping a story in your lap. Gary becomes a bit more lost as the story progresses - you get the sense this is a man who doesn't really know where he fits into even his own life - and the collision of him with this new stranger (and the tangent friction of his "friend" Dennis's influence) sets him in a new direction.
"Herman's Kosher Deli," by Daniel M. Jaffe
I love short fiction that follows in a series, and revisits characters from earlier tales. The fellow in this story, found in Dirty Diner, was also in Riding the Rails, both edited by Jerry L. Wheeler - who was a finalist this year for his erotica collection Strawberries and Other Erotic Fruits.
Jaffe's character, to get back to this story, is a sex angel. He figured this out in the last story - he's always incredibly attractive to men - all men - and has been working to figure out how to control this "problem." Working at a deli while he learns to fend off the attractions of others isn't as easy as it sounds, and the same joy and amusement - and sexy fun - that popped up throughout Jaffe's story in Riding the Rails is here again.
I grinned my way through the poor man's ongoing attempts to keep the men at bay - and learn his own self-control and how to not just give in to everyone who cops a feel. I hope this fellow returns, and that Jaffe never runs out of hijinks.
"Rick's Greasy (S)poon," by Hank Edwards
The next tale in The Dirty Diner is one about fathers, and sons, and legacies. I will admit here that even my stone cold familial agnostic eyes got a bit misty during this story, which is about Dave, a young man who returns to run his father's diner after his father passes away. He's got the desire, but maybe not the talent, and there's so much work to be done that it's not looking likely - not to mention he doesn't have any of his father's recipes.
But help arrives in the form of a supplier of local produce who definitely feeds more than one of Dave's appetites. The follow through of this story is tender in places even as it smoulders with Hank Edwards' usual sexy style, and I found myself smiling at the resolution of the problems Dave faced. Especially the ones with the produce supplier.
Oh, and fine. The stuff with his dad, too. That was nice. Just a second. Got some dust in my eye.
"Wish You Were Here," by Lewis DeSimone
Speaking of meals where you're not sure what is going to happen, I'm circling back to The Dirty Diner again today, where author Lewis DeSimone takes us to Italy. This story has a wonderful build to it - we know the voice of the tale is in Italy despite no longer being with the man he loved who'd wanted this trip in the first place. He is here, tasting and watching life go around him, sampling culture as a kind of escape, but not really succeeding in moving past what was.
A chance encounter, however, built on the wine and food of Italy, gives him a moment of potentiality - a chance born in passion that might just shed the past.
I love that this tale doesn't spell everything out for you, but gives you these moments in the life of a man who is still hearing the echo of what was, rather than the sound of what might be. Wonderfully done.
"Christmas Comes to Otter's Gap," by Jeff Mann
If you've ever read Jeff Mann (or heard me praising Jeff Mann) then you know by now that the man is a master of the poetic turn of phrase and has the most incredible ability to balance dichotomies you wouldn't normally expect to go well together. This story has that, of course, but it also has another ideal that I associate with Jeff Mann's writing - the love of Southern food.
No matter what Mann I read, I always end up hungry. The descriptive powers that he conjures when describing food - never mind it's food I've never seen or had, given my northern habitat - is mouth-watering. So when I saw this tale pop up in The Dirty Diner I knew I was in for something enticing as well as - likely - something bearish, a little (or a lot) edgy, and likely the taste of sweat alongside whatever southern delicacy was about to be cruelly trotted across the page in front of me with no hope of an actual sample.
The story is set in Virginia, and features a man caught in a snowstorm that brings him to Otter's Gap, to meeting a fellow in his restaurant, to sampling Appalachian food - and then more of what the chef has to offer. It's a lovely little story, and filled with enough of Mann's heat to melt even my own cold holiday heart.
"The Café Françoise," by Jay Neal
Jay Neal and I have been companions in anthologies a few times now, and I always enjoy his stories - they're often very different from each other, and I mean that as the compliment it is. This one, set in the harsh reality of a café in France in World War II, is a wonderful piece that - apart from being erotica - has an incredible sense of place and time to it. The reality of the bittersweet is thick here, and I will not lie and say I didn't close this story with a sniffle.
The narrator is here telling of a love he witnessed (and enjoyed) between two men who could never have what they truly wanted - one a German soldier, and one a Frenchman - but who take what they can while they can have it. That there is a dark decision to face at the end of the relationship is no surprise in and of itself, but it's deftly done, and the resolution of the story was surprising. Heartbreaking.
"Mistakes Were Made," by Tristan Cole
Back to the hot dishes from The Dirty Diner today. Tristan Cole is the king of the tales about insatiable submissive fellows, and "Mistakes Were Made" is no exception.
Here we have a man whose family keeps swooping in and taking his restaurants from under him whenever he manages to make a new success. This man has a boyfriend (and waiter) who is - put simply - one of said insatiable bottom types, and when he starts to realize this (via a web history search and a few other clues), it gels with something his boyfriend says - that he should start a restaurant your family would be too embarrassed or scandalized to own - and a new dessert is soon available on the menu.
Sexy, erotically charged, and over-the-top, this story is superlative Tristan Cole.
"Acquired Taste," by William Holden
Speaking of nightmares! Okay, if you've been following these Short Stories 365 entries this year, you'll already know that when you see William Holden's name pop up in an anthology, you might want to pause, check that you're not about to go to bed, and ensure that there are many lights brightly lit. His stories generally serve up a slice of something dark alongside the erotic, and as a confirmed horror wuss, I've learned my lesson.
So, even expecting it, "Acquired Taste" manages to deliver a shivery slap to the face.
Dean is out with his partner at a restaurant and the food is just increadible. It's so incredible, in fact, he's having a hard time controlling his reactions to it. His partner, annoyed at how little he is paying attention, steps outside for a smoke, and Dean starts to notice other men in the restaurant are having the same - uh - reaction to the dishes. And just through the doors to the kitchen, there's a tattooed man that really captures Dean's attention. It can't hurt to have a taste, can it?
I've said it before, but The Dirty Diner has such a larger range than you'd imagine when you first pick it up. And this dark dish is delivered by Holden with aplomb.
"The Munchies," by Rob Rosen
This is the last tale in The Dirty Diner and it's a lovely wee dessert served up by Rosen. Here we have a fella who perhaps didn't inhale just a little, and his impromptu trip to a donut store to conquer the inevitable munchies.
Once at the donut shoppe, however, there is a cash flow problem, and those delicious rings of doughy goodness seem out of reach. Until the hunky man behind the counter offers another option for method of payment, and soon our semi-fried hero is bobbing for donuts.
The amusement factor is high in this story - you can imagine how the donuts are stacked, I'm sure - but the story is no less hot for being so fun. Once again, I also had a quiet little grin over something I now look for in every Rob Rosen story (it's like playing 'Where's Waldo?' and I once asked him about it and it's actually really sweet).
Just like those donuts.
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